What We Come To
by time-will-give-us-nothing
Summary: 16 yr-old ANBU Konohamaru visits 20 yr-old Naruto when he is camping out with Yamato and Kakashi.One-Shot.


**What We Come To**

"Naruto!," Kakashi yelled from across the wide field, instantly breaking Naruto out of his meditation state. "Dinner!" Naruto stomach grumbled in recognition – _Dinner_. Though Naruto had barely thought about it before (shockingly), he was definitely thinking about it now. Still, he was mad at how easily Kakashi had broken him out of his concentration.

Running over, Naruto sat down by the fire, on a wooden block that Yamato had already assembled. Rolling his neck around in relaxation, Naruto undid all the horrible knots tied up in there, hearing the cracks loud and clear. Grabbing the top of his head with his right hand and his chin with his left, he jerked it swiftly, releasing even more cackles. Once he finished, he felt refreshed.

"What are we having – fish?"

"Yes," Yamato answered.

Looking around, Naruto saw that Kakashi was hidden in the nights shade, about thirty feet from them and the light of the fire. What was he doing? "Is Kakashi-sensei taking a piss?," Naruto joked, licking his chapped lips and turning back to Yamato.

"No. He's talking."

"With who? Himself?" Naruto shook his head at his own 'funnie' and stood up, leaning over the fire to look over the food. _Why did they even call me over if it's not even ready?_ The fish was still crisping, apparently.

Naruto didn't notice Kakashi and his 'friend' moving, but certainly did notice the flare of fire that happened only seconds later. He screaming wildly, arms flailing in front of himself for protection, tripping over his feet to get back and falling over with a loud 'thud'.

"Kami!," he screeched, confused and angry.

"Maah, Naruto-Kun. It couldn'tve hurt _that _much."

Naruto's head instantly shot up at his recognition of the voice. Eyes widened, he saw a boy – well, a little bit taller than a boy – crouched in front of him, hand out-held. Half his face was covered by a white mask with red and black stripes decorating it in weird places. The other half revealed a young face – 16, maybe. He had spiky black hair and the darkest shade of brown eyes. Lips stretched in a feral grin, it showed a missing tooth. Naruto didn't need to see the blue scarf, stretched to its fullest capacity, to know who it was.

"Kono – _Konohamaru?_"

"Ouch, Naruto-Kun! Planning to scream my ears out?," The young man shouted back, even though they were only a foot away from each other.

"Ehhh, boys keep it down. You're scaring away the night life."

Konohamaru glanced back at Kakashi, who was attending to the fish. Konohamaru couldn't really tell though: at the same time, Kakashi was reading one of those damned Icha-Icha books. _How many times is he going to re-read those? Don't they get boring?_ Konahamaru returned his gaze back to Naruto, who was staring at him in wonder.

"What's with the mask, Konahamaru?"

Konohamaru's eyebrows shot up into his forehead. Shockingly, neither the goggles, nor hitai-ate were resting there. Konohamaru had his hitai-ate wrapped around his forearm, and the goggles were nowhere in sight.

"Oh this?" _Yes, bakayarou, that. _" This is nothing." Konohamaru grabbed the mask and ripped it off. Naruto wasn't expecting to see scars and luckily, he didn't. "I'm not some ANBU or nothing." Suddenly, the mask lit on fire. It burned to dust, which was whisked away in the gentle night breeze. "Me and Moegi-chan were simply messing around earlier. Fun and games, you know?"

Naruto nodded. Finally, he grabbed Konohamaru's outstretched hand and without a beat, he was hauled upwards. "What have you been up to, Naruto-kun? Why wasn't I invited to this little camp out session?" It wasn't a serious question.

"I just like hanging out with my Elders, you know? Have them tell me some awesome story of when they were young, so I can remind them of it when they've forgotten!" Both boys laughed at the elderly joke, elbowing each other in the ribcages.

"No, but seriously," Naruto murmured, looking to the starry night sky. "We're just hanging out."

"Of course."

Naruto and Konohamaru sat down; Naruto on a block of wood, Konohamaru on the dirt floor. Yamato passed sizzling fish around, even to him, the unexpected visitor. Naruto had barely gotten out "Itadakimasu" before he was ripping the poor flesh off the animal. _Same as always_, Konohamaru thought gingerly.

Looking down at his own food, he closed his eyes. He sat there for almost two minutes, without saying a word, without moving an inch, without doing anything. Naruto almost thought he'd fallen asleep when Konahamaru's eyes snapped open and he roared "ITADAKIMASU", devouring the meat in one bite.

"I'm-a-faster-eater than-Naaa-ruuu-too," he announced in a sing song tone. Naruto's eyes sparkled at the challenge, but his hopes were instantly shot down by Yamato and Kakashi. "Don't even think about it, Naruto."

"But –"

"No."

"Kaka –"

"No."

"Yama –"

"_No_."

"He –"

"_Shut up, child_."

Konohamaru giggled childishly, leaning back on his hands and gazing into the bright colors of the fire. "Never knew you were tamed, Naruto."

Naruto shot up, fist in the sky. "I SHALL NEVER BE TAMED! I AM NARUTO, THE SOON-TO-BE SIX HOKAGE! BELIEVE IT OR I WILL TRAMPLE ON YOU'RE OUTRAGEOUS THOUGHTS!"

"Yeah, yeah, Naruto, sit down," Yamato grumbled.

Plopping back down, Naruto grabbed his side and sighed. "Man, I'm getting to old for this."

"Last time I checked you were twenty. Isn't it a little too early to be going through your midlife crisis?"

"I think I spotted a gray hair yesterday."

"I didn't know Kakashi-sensei was still so perverted."

Both boys chuckled, and dodged the blank sticks thrown at them. "Are you _trying_ to kill me?," Naruto roared half-heartedly.

"Will it make you shut up?"

"No!"

"Well damn, my plan has failed."

The group talked for the rest of the hour. Naruto had calmed down and evacuated his childish act. Head propped up against the wood, his hitai-ate was undone and resting beside him, orange jumper zipped open and shirt lodged halfway up his chest, with one hand resting on his belly and the other on his head.

Konohamaru was in much of the same condition, minus the hands, which simply lay beside him on the grass, and the lack of a jumper. His pants were loosened to let in the breeze, his vest was open and his shirt barely covered his nipples.

Kakashi disappeared from the conversation eventually and retired to reading while Yamato dozed off.

The two men talked about Konohamaru's new found ninja skills and abilities, his relationships and love interests, and everything else that came to mind. Konohamaru said he was a Chuunin, but Naruto didn't believe him for an instant: he did not press the subject. Konohamaru was interested in a girl name Ritsu, but she was from Sunagakure. They had met when Konohamaru was performing a B-Rank mission. Naruto also found out that Konohamaru had killed at least thirteen people in his life as a ninja. It had brought an awkward silence upon them for a while, but Naruto quickly changed the subject to money and living estate.

Finally, Konohamaru got up to leave. Fixing his trousers and shirt, he stretched like a cat and patted Naruto on the head. "Bye Naruto-kun. It was very nice seeing you again. I'll tell Hinata and Sakura you're okay, okay. Do you want me to give any message to Granny-Tsunade?"

"Yeah, No. Thanks. I appreciate you dropping by."

Naruto was asleep a few seconds later, obviously exhausted. Konohamaru held out his hand and black particles started to materialize and join, casting the once burned mask. Putting it back over his face, he walked away from the campsite, mood considerably darker.

"You do realize he knows?," Kakashi called flatly, without looking up from his book.

"Yes. He is much stronger than me, of course he knows."

Kakashi smiled faintly. It was almost hysterical seeing the immediate dip in the teen's tone and aura. "Farewell, Konohamaru."

Konahamaru evaporated into the darkness of the forest without a reply.

* * *

(**A/N**: I had written this story with Konohamaru's name spelt like 'Kon**a**hamaru', so if you see any of that it's probably because I just looked over it. Also, spelling and grammar might be a little off…EVIL KONOHAMARU! Hahaha, he's not evil!)


End file.
